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Tag: PhD

In this issue, our congratulations go to Dr. Abather Saadoon, who has recently completed his PhD at the University of Baghdad. His dissertation is entitled ‘Agricultural Lands in Unpublished Cuneiform Texts from the Akkadian Period in Tell Al-Wilayah’ and combined archaeological and philological approaches to study agriculture in the Old Akkadian period.

Tell al-Wilayah, writes Saadoon, is a uniquely important site because it provides us with new information about the economic system of Mesopotamia for the Old Akkadian period. Our knowledge of Old Akkadian economy is highly limited, with respect to other periods such as the Third Dynasty of Ur or the Old Babylonian period, in the term of e.g. weights, scales, prices, and wages. Likewise, we know little about the machines that were used in agriculture and irrigation, or about the various stages of agricultural work in this period.

In this issue we are introducing some new themes to the newsletter. One of these new themes is called Congratulations. In each issue we will bring you the news of an assyriologist or archeologist who has, for example, published their first book, received an award, or, as is the case this time, defended their PhD!

For our first installment of this new recurring theme, we would like to congratulate Dr. Jaafar Jotheri on obtaining his PhD degree in Geoarchaeology from Durham University last month.

This issue, we have taken a somewhat different approach to the “In The Field” section than you have been getting used to. As we were reminded, not just the interaction with other fields such as Archaeology falls under the “In The Field”-category. Travelling to universities and interacting within projects are all part of the hands-on approach that is a part of Assyriology. Therefore, we have asked one PhD student to give some information on what it is like to be working abroad, within a large project. Continue reading In The Field: A PhD Abroad

“What fascinated me the most was that I tried to answer cultural historical questions by means of manuscripts that hardly contained any historical information. And that it worked eventually, at least partially.”

There must be a lot of talented Assyriologists at the moment, because it has been raining prizes during the last General Meeting! De Gruyter publishers has awarded, together with the IAA, the Assyriologist who has written the best dissertation for their PhD. This year, Tobias Scheucher (34) from Berlin was the one who won this prize. Continue reading De Gruyter Award Winner